15 January - Tiruvalluvar Day

Tiruvalluvar wrote Thirukkural in Tamil.

Thiru means honourable and Kural is a form of poem in Tamil.  The book of poem is in three parts on Ethical behavior, right conduct in the world and relationship between man and woman, love. There are total of 133 chapters and each chapter has 10 kurals.

The book is popular in Tamilnadu for its teaching of virtuous conduct. It is translated in number of international languages. Indian Government has also decided to translate it into all Indian languages into which it was not translated so far through HRD Ministry.

BJP also decided in 2014 that it will celebrate Thiruvalluvar Day in January 2015.



January 2015

PM released Gujarati translation of Thirukkural, on 'ThiruvalluvarDay'

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today released the Gujarati translation of 'Thirukkural,' which holds a prime place among the Classical literary works of Tamil.

On Thiruvalluvar Day, the Prime Minister also paid homage to the great poet and philosopher. "I bow to the great Thiruvalluvar. Simple and vast in scope, his thoughts & writings have been a strong influence on humanity for centuries," the Prime Minister said.

The ideas expressed in Thirukkural are so universal that even after almost two millennia they are still relevant and revered. Thirukkural does not refer to any nation, leader, society, language, religion or caste in the entire book, which is why it has been called the 'Universal Veda.'

The Central Institute of Classical Tamil, an institute under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, has taken up the mission of bringing out the Thirukkural in all Indian Languages in which it has not been translated so far. The institute also proposes to launch an e-version of the book shortly.

The Gujarati translation has been done by Dr. P. C. Kokila, born in Gujarat, a Professor of Hindi, and a resident of Tamil Nadu.

The Minister for Human Resource Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, was present on the occasion. Dr. P.C. Kokila, and Smt. V.G. Bhooma, Director, Central Institute of Classical Tamil, were also present.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=114722